US 8,751,507 B2Granted

Recommendation system with multiple integrated recommenders

AssigneeAmazon Technologies, Inc.

InventorsSung H. Kim, Shing Yan Lam, Kushal Chakrabarti, George M. Ionkov, Brett W. Witt

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Abstract

A recommendations system is provided in various embodiments for selecting items to recommend to a user. The system includes a recommendation engine with a plurality of recommenders, and each recommender identifies a different type of reason for recommending items. In one embodiment, each recommender retrieves item preference data and generates candidate recommendations responsive to a subset of that data. The recommenders also score the candidate recommendations. In certain embodiments, a normalization engine normalizes the scores of the candidate recommendations provided by each recommender. A candidate selector selects at least a portion of the candidate recommendations based on the normalized scores to provide as recommendations to the user. The candidate selector also outputs the recommendations with associated reasons for recommending the items.

Claims29

Dependent claims

A recommendations system for selecting items to recommend to a target user, the system comprising:

a computer system comprising computer hardware, the computer system programmed to implement:
a user interface that provides functionality for users of an electronic catalog of items to create and assign arbitrary textual tags to individual items represented in the electronic catalog after selecting said items, such that the textual tags categorize the items represented in the electronic catalog, the user interface comprising a tag entry field on item detail pages of the electronic catalog, the tag entry field enabling the users to create the tags via entry of text strings into the tag entry field;
a recommendation engine comprising a tag-based recommender configured to:
programmatically identify, from item preference data stored in computer storage, an electronic catalog item previously selected by a target user, without receiving a designation from the target user of the previously selected item,
subsequent to identification of the electronic catalog item, programmatically identify one or more tags of the textual tags associated with the previously selected catalog item in a data repository by at least identifying a threshold number of most popular tags assigned to the selected item, without any input from the target user, the one or more identified tags having been assigned to the electronic catalog item via the user interface, and
subsequent to said identification of the one or more tags, automatically search the electronic catalog using the one or more identified tags as one or more keywords to identify a corresponding set of related items;
and
a candidate selector component configured to:
select at least a portion of the set of related items to provide as recommendations to the target user, and
output the recommendations with associated textual reasons for recommending the items.

7 more elements

A computer-implemented method of providing item recommendations to a target user, the method comprising:

by a computer system comprising computer hardware, the computer system configured to generate recommendations by at least:
by a computer system comprising computer hardware, the computer system configured to generate recommendations by at least:
providing a user interface that provides functionality for users of an electronic catalog of items to create and assign arbitrary textual tags to individual items represented in the electronic catalog after selecting said items, such that the textual tags categorize the items represented in the electronic catalog, the user interface comprising a tag entry field on item detail pages of the electronic catalog, the tag entry field enabling the users to create the tags via entry of text strings into the tag entry field;
programmatically identifying at least one tagged item that was selected by a target user, the at least one tagged item being represented in the electronic catalog, without receiving a designation from the target user of the at least one tagged item;
subsequent to and in response to said identifying, selecting one or more user-defined textual tags associated with the at least one tagged item by at least identifying a threshold number of most popular tags assigned to the at least one tagged item, without any input from the target user, each tag comprising a descriptor selectively associated with the at least one tagged item by one or more users;
subsequent to said selecting the one or more user-defined tags, automatically searching the electronic catalog using the one or more tags as one or more keywords to identify a corresponding set of related items;
selecting at least a portion of the set of related items to provide as the recommendations to the target user;
and
outputting the recommendations with associated textual reasons for recommending the items.

6 more elements

Non-transitory computer storage having instructions stored thereon which cause a computer system to perform a method of selecting items to recommend to a target user, the method comprising:

outputting a user interface that provides functionality for users of an electronic catalog of items to create and assign arbitrary textual tags to individual items represented in the electronic catalog after selecting said items, such that the textual tags categorize the items represented in the electronic catalog, the user interface comprising a tag entry field on item detail pages of the electronic catalog, the tag entry field enabling the users to create the tags via entry of text strings into the tag entry field;
programmatically identifying at least one tagged item in the electronic catalog, the at least one tagged item selected by a target user, without receiving a designation from the target user of the at least one tagged item;
subsequent to and in response to said identifying, selecting one or more user-defined textual tags associated with the at least one tagged item by at least identifying a threshold number of most popular tags assigned to the at least one tagged item, without any input from the target user, each tag comprising a descriptor selectively associated with the at least one tagged item by one or more users;
automatically searching the electronic catalog using the one or more tags as keywords to identify a corresponding set of related items;
selecting at least a portion of the set of related items to provide as recommendations to the target user;
and
outputting the recommendations with associated textual reasons for recommending the items.

4 more elements

An apparatus for selecting items to recommend to a target user, the apparatus comprising:

means for providing a user interface configured to enable a user of an electronic catalog of items to create textual tags for categorizing items represented in the electronic catalog and to associate particular tags with particular items in the electronic catalog, said means for providing comprising programmed computer hardware;
means for programmatically identifying at least one tagged item in the electronic catalog, the at least one tagged item selected by a target user, said means for identifying comprising programmed computer hardware, without receiving a designation from the target user of the at least one tagged item;
means for selecting one or more user-defined textual tags associated with the at least one tagged item subsequent to the identification of the at least one tagged item by at least identifying a threshold number of most popular tags assigned to the at least one tagged item, without any input from the target user, each tag comprising a descriptor selectively associated with the at least one tagged item by one or more users via the user interface, said means for selecting one or more user-defined textual tags comprising programmed computer hardware;
means for searching the electronic catalog, subsequent to the selection of the one or more user-defined textual tags, using the one or more tags as keywords to identify a corresponding set of related items, said means for searching comprising programmed computer hardware;
means for selecting at least a portion of the set of related items to provide as recommendations to the target user, said second means for selecting at least a portion of the set of related items comprising programmed computer hardware;
and
means for outputting the recommendations with associated textual reasons for recommending the items.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.